Good Academic Practice

Academic integrity and attention to the fundamentals of good academic practice are essential prerequisites for all academic work and a guarantee for high quality research.

Plagiarism

plagiarism, n.
"The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft."
^{Oxford English Dictionary,, 28.04.2020}

In the past years, we've seen an uptick in cases in which full pages, not just individual passages, have been copied from the internet or other mostly electronic sources into term papers and theses, without appropriate citation. This fulfils the definition of plagiarism.

Every academic paper is to be submitted together with a signed English Department pledge of academic integrity, even when not explicitly solicited.

Please also note the university's general information on academic integrity as well as the Regulations of the University of Freiburg on Safeguarding Academic Integrity.

General Guidelines for Academic Papers

These guidelines concern written assignments in the English department. For formal considerations concerning formatting and citation, please refer to the 7th edition of the MLA Style Sheet.

Assuming ca. 400 words per page and 2.0 line spacing, the following is expected:

• Term paper Proseminar: 6.000 words (ca. 15 pages)
• Term paper Hauptseminar (Bachelor): 7.500 – 8.500 words (ca. 18 – 20 pages)
• Term paper Masterseminar: 9.000 – 10.000 words (ca. 20 – 25 pages)
• Bachelor's thesis: 14.000 – 15.000 words (ca. 35 – 40 pages)
• Master's thesis (M.A:): 32.000 words (ca. 80 pages)
• Zulassungsarbeit (Staatsexamen) and Master's thesis (M.Ed.): 24.000 words (ca. 60 pages)